Chibok , Nigeria -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- It 's the beginning of the second semester in public schools across Nigeria and students are flocking back after the vacation .

But in most of Borno state , the heartland of the militant group Boko Haram , the desks are empty and the playing fields are quiet .

Western education is a sin in the eyes of the terror group -- and nowhere has that message more clearly hit home than in their recent horrific attack on Chibok Girls Secondary School . Only the walls of the classrooms , library and science laboratories remain : a charred shell of what was once , the pride of Chibok .

But even more painful is the fact that more than 200 of the girls who took classes here are still missing , kidnapped from the school during that night of terror .

Daniel Muvia , a resident of Chibok who witnessed the attack on his village , says he is too scared to take his daughters to school . Since the attack he 's kept them at home , where he felt they would be safer .

`` I am scared of sending them to school , '' he says . `` I 'm not feeling good that they 're at home and I 'm not feeling good to send them to school because of the attacks . ''

Muvia 's dilemma mirrors that of almost every parent in Chibok : torn between education for their child and their family 's safety .

On the way to Chibok from Abuja , the country 's capital , travelers meet one police or military checkpoint after another . But join the main rough dirt road to Chibok and the government security presence seems to taper off .

It all leaves local residents feeling vulnerable and afraid . Muvia could n't forgive himself if he sent his daughter to school and then heard that something had happened to her . `` No one can afford losing their daughter , '' he says .

In an article on his website `` Education for All '' Gordon Brown , the U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education , says 10.5 million children in Nigeria are yet to go to school and that the high levels of illiteracy are now an economic problem , as well as a social disaster , for the country .

Analysts say that if the Boko Haram attacks on schools continue unabated then those levels of illiteracy will significantly increase , further compromising the future of the country 's young people .

CNN interviewed one of the girls who managed to escape from Boko Haram on the night they were taken from their dormitory . Though she hopes to go back to school soon so she can fulfil her dream of becoming a doctor , she 's still very scared . `` If in Chibok , I 'll never go again , '' she says .

But like many families in the area her family is too poor to send her to a boarding school far away from the village . All the people in Chibok seem to have left is hope . Muvia prays a day will come when his daughters will be free to pursue their futures and become lawyers , doctors or engineers .

`` When I see all these people doing their jobs , I have the desire -- or the hope -- that I want my children to be like them , '' he says .

`` I have very high hopes for them . ''

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Up to 300 schoolgirls have been kidnapped by Boko Haram from Chibok , Nigeria

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Parents , children say they are now too scared to go to school in the region

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Father tells CNN : `` No one can afford losing their daughter ''